Do you speak Swedish?

I can read and understand what people are saying in Swedish. Well for the most part. I wouldn't say I was fluent. But speaking Swedish is a whole other thing. It's quite different from English in pronunciation. I learned a lot of it by myself from things like Duolingo online and Swedish kid videos on YouTube. But I've also attended Swedish for Immigrant classes a little. The government gives free lessons to any immigrants. But unfortunately my son became very ill while we were travelling to the states and I missed more than ten days so they kicked me out. Apparently they don't make exceptions for medical reasons which is kind of lame. But I will reapply soon and hopefully get back in quick.
Most people that I know are from my boyfriend and it's been hard for me to integrate because of my circumstances. I do know a lot of people here but they are all my boyfriends friends and I would like my own life. I came to Sweden while I was pregnant. The way you meet people is through work, school, and going out to bars. But I haven't been able to do any of that since I have a young child. I haven't looked for a job yet but I hear the only way to get one is through friends and the only way to get friends is from work. So it might be difficult.
If you know English then it's not really a problem. Every Swede besides older people know it very well. However I am a native English speaker so they get quite embarrassed speaking to me. I have had some people flat out refuse to speak to me even though they know English because they don't want to mess up.
Are you planning on moving here?

Dear Priscilla

Thank you very much for this forum
Of course like in any other country with national language..it's quite hard to get a job in Sweden without speaking Swedish.
Most of the people speak Swedish or neighbouring languages like Norwegian, Finnish, Danish ..English is spoken but on lower levels .
So to survive in Sweden u must learn Swedish at what ever cost.
It's also a requirement  for getting citizenship in sweden

The few months I was there I managed to grasp a few words .
Swedes are friendly and they willing to teach ..


Regards

Ibrahim

U.A.E

I would disagree about English. I would say that is spoken very well by most people here. They have been voted the best non native English speakers in the world in the past couple of years and third this year. They learn it from a very early age in school and they watch a lot of movies in English. The younger kids actually know it quite well from YouTube videos they watch. So you can get around just fine with it. But like I said it is difficult sometimes because a few people dont feel comfortable using English even though they know it quite well.

You definately need to speak and write in swedish imho - but that can be hard to practice because as @shanteaduston says most people speak english very well and I often find people love the chance to practice their english with a native speaker.

That said there are great courses - you have to want it and practice (A LOT).  I got a lot of good practice watching Harry Potter movies dubbed into swedish.  I started with swedish audio english text, then with swedish audio and swedish text and then just the audio.

websites like 8sidor.se are good to start too.

Hello Priscilla,
To speak swedish is a must if you want to live in the country; it's not an easy language but with good will it can be learned:I have no problem as I have been living in Scandinavia for more than 40 years: beside I got my Engineer education in Sweden.
Br
Zabna

If you learn to write and talk in swedish, that will save you alot of time. Also makes it alot easier for you to move around and get infos etc.

Learning swedish:
Komvux vuxenutbildning (if you have residentspermit/citizenship and also depends on your age)
Books, newspappers and also kids books or pocketbooks are good too
Friends, coz you need to practice what you´ve read right?
Swedish ppl are helpfull especially if you wanna learn their language.

Daily activities:
Yea, you can speak english with swedes. Would help if you spoke some swedish languange.. kinda make swedes smile .

Tack (pronounced: Tak) = thank you
Varsågod (pronounced: Varshogud)= welcome

It really is important to at least understand if not speak Swedish. Is it necessary to get a job? That really depends on the job. If you want to work at any job that is community driven, small company that provides service or goods in a small area, you are going to need to know Swedish. Not everyone in Sweden is Swedish. The common language is Swedish, though. Not everyone understands English, or Arabic, or Chinese, or Tagalog. Vuxenutbildningen (adult education) SFI ( Swedish for immigrants) is offered in multiple ways. Internet, night, morning, self paced. They encourage reading newspapers and news on tv to increase vocabulary and speech patterns/pronunciation. I have found duolingo.com and memrise.com to be helpful. They are adaptive so the more words you understand the more they are used in different contexts. Since I am a Native American English speaker, the very best free course I have used is learningswedish.se, which is offered by a major university in Stockholm. Instruction is in English, but activities and tests are in Swedish. It has been very helpful with grammar/sentence structure and listening exercises. For those seeking work at bigger corporations there is a good chance you won't need to be fluent. Socially, it's nice to know what people are saying! I had a hospital stay last spring and roomed with 5 other women. They had no idea I understood what they were saying so they felt comfortable telling anyone who would listen my business. I had to roll onto my belly to hide the belly laughs! On the third day I spoke Swedish with a nurse. There were lots of gasps. Hilarious!

Hi everyone,
yes it is very important to speak swedish in order to find a job. I do speak swedish and I learned it att school. It is free of charge but sometimes needs to have the swedish social security number, sometimes does not depending on where do live. Different municipalities has different rules for that.

Good luck to all you people on the move around the world !

after 14 months still dont speak swedish,  had 5 employers, still employed at first one all the time where I communicate in english,  other side jobs also eng,  and my native language at one employer..  so if you want to work you can overcome this if you have other qualities.. sfi is free but it is a waste of time,  folkuniversitetet organise paid swe courses but C level only in bigger cities malmö,  goth,  stock,  so you need to waste your time with assistants employed as teachers at sfi,  and later SAS(swedish as second language) in my opinion sfi is just helping unemployed swedish talking person to teach you whatever they want,  there is no book,  every teacher do what he wants (knows) had 15 of them in 3 months at same school,  but js good for basics.. it is possible to function here without swedish,  but off course it helps to get a (better) job..
if there's an option pay for swe lessons,  or learn it before you come to sweden..